New Kid on the block

[Banger]

Hi Folks

I have just bought my first GTI.  I have a few questions about the car - any advise greatly appreciated:

There is a rattle coming from the timing belt housing - what could this be?  I am getting the belt and tensioner changed as soon as my garage can fit me in - what kind of price should I be looking at?

How do you tell the difference between an 8v and a 16v?

The brakes are very soft, the peddle seems to have alot of travel, I think that the pads are needing changed, how do you know if this is car has ABS, does the pads have wear indecators fitted?

The car is  a 3 door early 1995 2.0 GTI, alloys are dreadful the slot type VW ones!!!

All help greatly appreciated.

[Overseer]

welcome.. can only help with a few mate


telling if its a 8v or 16v.

1) it will say its a 16v on the v5.
2) the 16v has 16v in big letters on the engine (look in my gallery)
3) theres a sticker in the boot (see my gallery again) that'll say 16v if it is one.
4) visually it should have a lil  red "16v" badge under the GTI badge on the rear.. plus.. a red 16v badge on the front. generally the GTI has that huge ugly silver GTI badge onthe front. mostly thats enough to tell, but i've seen valvers with just the GTI badge on, or even with the silver GTI badge AND the red 16v badge on the front. (think someone once said earlier valvers may have come like that)

if its got abs there is an indicator to the right of the steering wheel, if you have airbags the indicator for that is also there. both should come on when you start the car, and go off after about 3 seconds.


i'm not sure if the 8v had brake wear indicators. the vr6 and 16v do.

[8vgti]

Nope the 8v doesnt have wear indicators...or at least my '97 P doesnt. Thats something new I have learned today by reading my manual!!

[jte]

It's not hard to tell the difference between 8v and 16v.  Just open the bonnet.  If you are still in any doubt after looking at the engine, you have an 8v.

Also a 16v has a redline at 7,000 rpm, the 8v at 6,000 rpm.

A friend with an 8v recently had a cambelt done.  He bought the belt and tensioner from vw for about ?25 and paid ?90 labour at an independant german car specialist with a good reputation.  This was a  fair price.  Certainly don't pay more than ?150 in total.

[8vgti]

It's not hard to tell the difference between 8v and 16v.  Just open the bonnet.  If you are still in any doubt after looking at the engine, you have an 8v.

Also a 16v has a redline at 7,000 rpm, the 8v at 6,000 rpm.

A friend with an 8v recently had a cambelt done.  He bought the belt and tensioner from vw for about ?25 and paid ?90 labour at an independant german car specialist with a good reputation.  This was a  fair price.  Certainly don't pay more than ?150 in total.

Actually the 8v redlines at 6200rpm . First cambelt and tensioner I had cost about ?110 from a decent independent, although last service I paid ?70, but that was just for the belt and fitting.

[golfvr6]

?25 for a belt AND tensioner from vw  
i think its a bit more than that  
150 bar sounds a fair price for parts and labour.

[jte]

?25 for a belt AND tensioner from vw  

According to him, yes.  Although thinking about it he quite possibly gets a discount as he has links with people working at the dealer.

How much would you expect the parts to be?  (out of interest)

[golfvr6]

15 bar for belt
30 bar for tensioner

approx